Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Earthenwood Studio Goodies

Way back in April....okay, so perhaps that's really not right, but it's seems like it was "Way back in April"...anyway, you get the idea ;) Melanie of Earthenwood Studio offered a giveaway challenge on her Earthenwood Design Team. I was lucky enough to have won! I received my goodies, and them promptly put them in my inspiration box. I pulled out the pieces every once in a while, waiting for inspiration to spark. Inspiration was like a wave on these pieces, it kept ebbing and flowing. Finally, though, after taking each piece apart numerous times, my muse became satisfied.

First, came this two-stranded bracelet. Featuring Melanie's very cool link and the drop, this bracelet also features a turquoise polymer clay egg by Barbara Bechtel/Floridity/Second Surf, ceramic beads from Gaea Cannaday, and a faceted onyx bead capped by my own nickel silver bead caps, all of which were wrapped with annealed steel wire. It was my first time using steel wire in a project, and while it did wreak havoc here and there, overall I was pretty pleased with it.

The second strand of this bracelet is of chunky black quartz nuggets with turquoise seed beads as spacers.

Two dangles hang from the handmade steel wire clasp - one is the awesome crackled egg drop from Earthenwood, and the other is a single turquoise nugget.

I felt that the gorgeous pendant Melanie sent needed to stand on it's own. I know that many people would have used it as part of a toggle clasp, and I toyed with that idea too, but discarded it. I also tried using it as a backdrop for a few other beads. (see here) Nah, I kept pulling that apart. Decided to go with simple, in the end. I suspended the pendant from a wrapped steel and sodalite linked chain. That's it. As I said, nice and simple.

The deep blue of the sodalite pulled out the quick flashes of blue I kept thinking I saw in the pendant. The steel wire used for the chain echoed the cool crackle color used on the pendant.

It's not a long necklace, measuring about 20 inches long, with the pendant hanging down about 2 inches. Simple. Like I said.

However, I wore this necklace to a party over the weekend, and the complements I got definitely confirmed that this necklace is indeed simply gorgeous.

Thank you so much Melanie, for the opportunity to play with some of your wonderful goodies!